Friends of Slide Ranch

In the past, native bees and feral honey bees could meet all of a farmer’s pollination needs for orchards,
berry patches, squash and melons, vegetable seed, sunflowers, and other insect-pollinated crops. These
farms were relatively small and close to areas of natural habitat that harbored adequate numbers of pollinators to accomplish the task that now requires imported colonies of honey bees. Nearby natural areas also served as a ready source of new pollinators that could re-colonize farms and provide pollination services if insecticide applications killed resident bees. 
 
Today, however, many agricultural landscapes are much more extensive and lack sufficient habitat to
support native pollinators. In spite of this reduction in areas of habitat, the value of the pollination services that native bees provide in the United States is estimated to be worth about $3 billion per year. Research conducted across North America further demonstrates that native bees still play an important role in crop pollination, so long as landscapes around farms supply forage and nest sites.

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide information about native bees and their habitat requirements so that farmers can manage the land around their fields to provide the greatest advantage for these
crop pollinators. These guidelines will help growers and conservationists:

 

• understand how simple changes to farm practices can benefit native pollinators and farm productivity;
• protect, enhance, or restore habitat to increase the ability of farmlands to support these bees; and
• ultimately increase a grower’s reliance upon native bees for crop pollination. 

Making small changes to increase the number of native pollinators on a farm does not require a lot of
work. Subtle changes in farm practices can involve identifying and protecting nesting sites and forage;
choosing cover crop species that provide abundant pollen and nectar; allowing crops to go to flower before plowing them under; or changing how pesticides are applied in order to have the least negative
impact on native bees.

Farmers with more time and interest can create additional pollinator habitat in unproductive areas on
the farm, or they can fine-tune the design of conservation buffers, such as hedgerows or grassed water-
ways, to provide maximum benefit for crop-pollinating native bees. For example, semi-bare, untilled ground or wooden nest blocks can be added to existing wildlife habitat; hedgerows can be supplemented with a wide variety of wildflowers and shrubs that provide bloom throughout the growing season; or a pesticide-free buffer zone can be maintained around field edges. 
 
Finally, managing marginal areas of a farm for native bees should not be confused with beekeeping. There are no hives, no need for special safety equipment, and no reason to handle any bees. In addition, most of these valuable pollinators do not sting!

 

Click here for funding resources for pollinator conservation projects in the US.

The guide provides five case studies, here are summaries of two:

 

Full Belly Farm

Just outside of California's Central Valley, tucked between hills of chaparral and oak savannah, sit Full Belly Farm. The farm's 250 acres support four families, an energetic team of interns and farm hands, and an abundance of native pollinators. By fine-tuning their operation over the past ten years, Full Belly's growers have created a diverse, vibrant, successful farm filled with pollinators, as well ad abundant wildlife and other beneficial insects.

 

The site for this farm was chosen, in part, becaue of its close proximity to vast acreage of natiral habitat. It is tucked into undeveloped hills that serve as an important source of native bees that visit crops and colonize the farm. To help these pollinators get out into the fields, Full Belly has created habitat on the farm that provides forage and nest sites, as well as corridors for the bees to move among the fields and orchards.

 

Pepco Transmission Lines, Maryland

Pollinators do not recognize land ownership boundaries. This can be an advantage to growers seeking habitat for crop-pollinating bees becayse neighboring land can habor these insects. Although often overlooked as a wildlife resource, power transmission corridors cross landscapes - including farms - throughout North America, and with careful management can support valuable pollinator populations.

 

One example of good power corridor management comes from Maryland Pepco, the Potomac Electric Power Company, manages a network of transmission lines of 330 miles of right-of-way (ROW), which covers approximately 10,000 acress in five Maryland countries and the Distrct of Columbia. The ROWs transverse farmland and natural areas, include diverse ecosystems and habitat, and form fingers through many rural, suburban and urban communities.

 

Pepco manages the ROW to ensure safe and reliable transmission of electricity. However, in doing this they also strive to maximize the habitat value of their land, and their management approach has created miles of open, meadow-like areas that provide great conditions for many bees, butterflies, and other pollinator insects.

Each farm has different opportunities and conditions for supporting native bees and, when managed with pollinators in mind, farmland can become havens for these useful, important insects.

 

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